it's not just a few big rerters to worry about anymore. how modern news coverage has changed politics itself. chris: welcome back. we're talking about how new media changed politics. it used to be a few reporters from a few big players were all a national politician had to worry about. you know, the boys on the bus. the turning point was in january of 1998. a little-known guy with his own internet gossip site rocked washington. he broke a gossip item "newsweek" had been sitting on. they hadn't vetted it yet. it was posted on "the drudge report" and here it was. the president of the united states is having an affair with monica lewinsky. three days later, the "washington post" decided to go with that story that "newsweek" editors had been vetting. another example, it took a reporter for abc news' internet political sheet called "the note" to break this. >> when strom thurmond rain for -- ran for president, we voted for him. we're proud of him. and if the rest of the country had followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over